First "Evacuation"

A lightening storm started lots of fires in our region.  The air quality was horrible.  When I say horrible, I mean HORRIBLE.  The particulates were over 900 when normal air quality is around 30.  Kent and I went out to dinner in Wenatchee and headed back to home to see a nasty sight.  Smoke covering our town.  We looked at each other and agreed to leave that night for Seattle.  We would not let ourselves and our kids breathe one more night of the hazardous air.  So we packed up Grandma Carol, the kids, the dogs and headed over Stevens Pass to escape our own home.

We kept ourselves busy in Seattle.  Auntie and Grandma made sure we stopped at lots of Starbucks shops along the way.  The kids have been spoiled by being given the chocolate or vanilla milk there a few times.  Brooke drew a picture of what they call "Moo Milk" (there is a cow on the front of it).

Cassy was happy to not be left behind.  The kids gave her extra attention.

This is a check to see if Caitlin ever looks at this blog.  Look at that awesome hair!  We headed over to Bainbridge Island for a short day trip away from the city.

I was so happy to have Kent along!  He usually has to stay behind, but they ended up cancelling school... so he got to be with us!  Yeah!

Oliver didn't nap for a few days... so he was CRANKY at Bainbridge. He finally collapsed on Kent and took a short nap.  I'm so glad because I was never going to travel with him again!

We had to come back.  Was not too excited about it, but it was nice to sleep in our own beds again.  We quickly started planning our next escape because with fires right up the canyon by our house, the smoke was not going to get any better and those N-99 masks are uncomfortable!



Smoke

As the smoke has cleared we now play freely outside and have almost forgotten the WEEKS of horrible air we endured this year.  I went through my photos and found this picture of the playground behind our house.  Eerie isn't it!  We are so thankful of the rain in the last few days that surely helped with those fires!

10 on 10: October 2012

We loaded up the kids and drove to Moscow, Idaho for the weekend.  Homecoming at University of Idaho is a trip down memory lane for us.  We stopped at a fruit stand on the way out of town and checked out all the shapes and colors of the pumpkins.

A quick stop at Safeway for some snacks.

Some say crazy, some say amazing... we decided to both carry the kids through the morning's activities which included random stops at fraternities to play the fight song and a parade with the alumni band.

I'm so proud of my cousin who is a music major at Idaho.

Usually the college is full of beautiful Fall colors at this time, but everything seems to be a little late this year.  It would be worth a trip in a week or two to check out the buildings covered with bright red ivy. 

Time for a football game!

The sousaphone section has some crazy traditions that continue year after year... like wearing skirts (long story) and making human pyramids.

No pictures of the football game, I guess you can tell where my heart is!

We were able to spend time with friends from college.  Here is sweet Mae who made for a great before/after picture!

10 on 10: The Simple LIfe

On this September's 10 on 10 (actually 11), I wanted to take a few photos to document how we like to spend our days during the school year.  I want these first five years of our childrens' lives to be filled with simple pleasures, nice slow walks, playing with friends and quality time with family.  Today was one of those slow paced days that we love.

For breakfast we broke open one of the jars of pears that I canned yesterday.  It was a delicious way to start the day!

Brooke woke up cheery today!

We decided to walk down to our local bakery. I'm sure the kids will remember these days of walking downtown for a special sugary treat. 

Oliver opted for a gingerbread boy. We have been reading "The Gingerbread Boy" book lately, so he thought it was fun to eat the cookie limb by limb!

Brooke picked her favorite M&M cookie.

We walked another quarter of a mile to visit Grandma. There's something special about the bond between a Grandma and a little girl!  Grandma Carol gets more hugs and snuggles than any of us!

We rested our walking legs for a while and read all our library books.

As usual, Oliver provided the comic relief.

And then, just like that, we were off again.  This boy is getting pretty coordinated with his scooter. His daredevil self gets me a little worried sometimes!

Sometimes it's good to just go slow.  Take some time and let the kids go at their own pace. That's what makes it a memorable adventure!

Icicle Gorge

Here are some photos from our walk around Icicle Gorge today... actually, I should say RUN.  These kids are getting to be such fast hikers that we have to run to keep up with them!  It sure makes it fun!

Day at the Fair

Messy hair boys watching television.

But that doesn't last too long... time to go to the fair!

You have to have your lunch box and "big wawa lotsa ice" ready to go.

Checking out the chickens.

Watching the high schoolers show their pigs.

Then it's time to go home and play... which looked cute for a few seconds and then both kids fell over and got hurt (both Kent and I wondered what we were thinking...).

It must have been pretty serious, because both kids required ice packs.  Look at those sad faces!

Smallwoods Harvest

Oh look how she has grown!  I missed 2011, darn!

The kids are so much more brave around the animals this year.  Smallwoods has lots of sheep and other farm animals you can feed and "pet".  The kids seemed to enjoy it, but...

it was HOT.

So, we went inside and did some "shopping".